


Waiting For You

by Critical_KO



Category: OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes
Genre: Babysitting, Child Abandonment, Drama, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family Drama, Loneliness, Memories, Missing Persons, Parental Advice, Parenthood, Psychological Trauma, References to Depression, Sorrow, Voxman, Voxmore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-03 14:24:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21180905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Critical_KO/pseuds/Critical_KO
Summary: Being alone is scary, especially for one so attached like Fink. Shannon finds herself having to take care of Fink, after it turned out that she had been alone for a whole month. With Professor Venomous missing, what will become of the young mouse? Will Shannon be able to handle the responsibility? (Missing AU.)





	1. Missing

It was as average of a day as any for Boxmore industries, a robotic minion producing facility run by Boxman. Although his many children doubted it would be just him running the show alone much longer. They were very happy with how things were changing though.

One young orange robot, Shannon, walked through the halls of the factory they called home, on her way to their father's office after being called to appear there. The villainous robotic girl got worried whenever this happened, since it usually meant a scolding from their father for failing another assault.

But there was no anger to his summon's this time, and instead of calling out for the specific family members who'd been sent for the attack on their rivals at Lakewood Plaza, and failed again. Boxman had asked that everyone showed up to his office immediately over the factory wide speaker system.

Shannon didn't like having to go alone. She hadn't a choice this time either. She loved her dad, but he was still somebody to fear, despite his profound happiness of recent times. All of his evil children expected that joy to become permanent soon enough.

"_Stupid Raymond and Darrell…_ _running out on me like that while everyone else is out on other jobs_," Shannon grumbled to herself. Her brothers both bailed on her after the announcement for everybody to gather in their creators office rung out, and most of the family had been sent out on long term personal assignments already. She was the only one that was left.

"I am Jethro," oh, and Jethro too, who greeted his sister upon meeting with her in the hall, both continuing their walk to Boxman's office.

"Yeah, yeah, good evening to you too, Jethro," Shannon half-heartedly greeted her brother, Jethro was the weakest in their family, yet had a lot more resourcefulness to him than he let on. Even if his speech circuit was severely lacking, everybody understood him pretty well. That didn't change the fact he essentially was a training dummy for target practice to most villains who bought him or most heroes that fought him.

"I am Jethro," Jethro quirked, rolling casually along on his treads beside her.

"No, Darrell and Raymond wussed out," Shannon answered to the whereabouts of their other brothers. Things became quiet between them as they approached their father's office doors. The orange robot knew it fell to her to handle talking to Boxman. They stepped through the doors, letting them close behind both of them "Daddy? We're here," she meekly spoke up.

"Shannon, Jethro, where are the others?" the familiar round man they gladly called father sat behind his desk. His robotic children were relieved to find him not so mad, he looked more disheartened than angry.

"_E-_everyone is on special assignments, daddy, remember? Raymond and Darrell had something come up, so they had to run out…" Shannon answered as they stepped up to his desk, begrudgingly covering for their siblings absences knowing she could hold it over their heads later. Boxman may not be angry, yet there was clear concern lingering in the atmosphere of the room.

"_**Oh, graahhh!**_ The one time when business is going great is when I need everybody the most!" Boxman banged an open palm on his desk, startling his children momentarily. After a brief pause, Jethro rolled up onto the desk with his strangely highly versatile treads.

"I am Jethro," the trash can on wheels asked if there was something wrong with their family business again, impressing investors was practically their second jobs, like most of them were out doing right now.

"I'm sorry… I need to ask you two to do a favor for me," Boxman came out and said it straight forwardly. It was surreal whenever their dad asked them to do something rather than ordered it.

"What's wrong, daddy?" Shannon asked, trying to withhold herself. She could tell he was acting more worried than anything.

"It's Professor Venomous… I assume you've noticed he hasn't been around lately," Boxman commented. The teenage robot wanted to initially say the opposite, but upon checking her memories, she couldn't recall Boxmore Industries' secondary owner being around at all recently for nearly a month now.

"_Oh…_ did you have a fight with him, daddy?" Shannon tried to ask, since it was far beyond blatant how close her father was with the Professor. It got to the point that Darrell had called Venomous dad on accident a few times too. Not that he ever paid it any mind. They didn't expect it to be long before he really did become their second parent.

"I am Jethro," Jethro offered his dad a tissue, only to get swept off the desk in retort. Boxman was unhappy to see the two acting sympathetic so fast.

"No, we've been great, _but…_ I've had zero contact with him for a month now. In fact, nobody has. I've asked every last business contact I had to my name, and nothing has turned up," Boxman continued explaining to his children. Shannon and Jethro looked to one another, starting to catch onto what it was their dad wanted them to do.

"You want us to go to his base?" Shannon guessed, helping Jethro back up when realizing he was stuck on his side rolling in circles. Professor Venomous had a base of his own. It was not the most elaborate of villain lairs, though it had a highly lethal security system to deter any other villains from getting dumb ideas of robbing the place. "What about Fink? Haven't you tried calling her?"

"I tried everything… I'm asking you two to go see if everything is alright," Boxman begged. None of his children liked seeing their father upset, hearing that both Professor Venomous and his daughter were both unresponsive for a month did nothing other than make them far more worried.

"I am Jethro," Jethro agreed without hesitation.

"Of course we'll go for you, daddy," Shannon nodded. The two of them got pulled into a tight hug by their creator.

"Thank you! I'll make sure you get special presents for doing this," Boxman declared. Hearing that made his daughter ecstatic. though it apparently overloaded Jethro's emotional circuitry with joy, because he exploded in his father's arms, covering the front of his family members with black soot as well as subsequently dampening the mood.

"_Oh…_ _I'll, uh…_ go pick up Jethro from the reassembly line, we'll let you know what happens!" Shannon hurried off, not wanting to deal with their father's possible anger at being blown up again.

"_I just hope I'm overreacting…_" Boxman mumbled to himself before he went to fetch the broom to clean up Jethro's scrap bits.

* * *

"I am Jethro," Jethro asked a question. They currently sat inside a rather small crate. The tiny blue robot was fine in the confined space, though his sister looked more annoyed.

"No, Jethro… If the professor's security systems are up then large things will get blasted out of the air," Shannon reminded her brother. They couldn't get a direct landing on Boxmore Industries' secondary owners base. They had to just land as close as they could and walk from there.

"I am Jethro," Jethro asked a second question.

"Try not to worry about how many times we'll get rebooted today," the orange robot responded, leaning back. Both of them felt the sudden jarring of being launched from Boxmore Industries' Crate Cannon, sending them flying through the air.

* * *

After five minutes of freefalling, the Boxmore crate rolled a short while before it crashed hard into something, they tumbled and landed with a splash.

After another moment, Shannon shook off the dizziness, retracting her hand into her wrist and letting one of her many buzzsaws pop out in trade. Normally the crates would open on their own. This time it was stuck closed. After making several cuts through the thick wood, Shannon was able to kick it apart.

"I am Jethro," Jethro rolled out. They were stuck in a creek of a park under a large rock.

"Guess that's why we don't fire without checking terrain coordinates…" Shannon grumbled. They still had quite some walking to do now. She just picked up her brother and hopped out of the crate's remains, continuing along without any care for the mess they left behind.

* * *

Things were quiet as they continued their approach to Professor Venomous's base. They were in another area of the city of Neutral Zone. The sun was beginning to set. The orange tint of lights was displaying a certain beauty to the area.

"Hey, Jethro, can I ask you something?" Shannon spoke up, wanting to break the silence as they kept on their approach to their dad's boyfriend's base, approaching a more rural area.

"I am Jethro," Jethro assured she could, after making a bad joke about her having just asked a question already. His sibling ignored the bad comedy.

"Are you happy with Professor Venomous and Fink? I mean… the idea of them joining our family. Are you okay with that?" Shannon asked without hesitation. Their family seemed divided. On one hand, they all were glad their father was happier than he ever had been. The only other times Boxman had been this happy was whenever he created a new robotic child.

The reason everybody was divided on the other hand, however, was because of how it might affect Boxmore Industries as a whole. Darrell was happy with it since he made up with Fink. Raymond didn't care either way. Mikayla still disliked Venomous a lot due to her natural animal instincts. Ernesto kept his opinion quiet, so nobody really knew it.

"I am Jethro," the trashcan on treads kept rolling along after his reply.

"_Yeah…_ that makes two of us…" Shannon agreed with her brother. They were worried about losing their dad. They might be worrying over nothing, simple jealousy, yet by getting a new parent and another sister to their family, it would be a jarring change for them to adapt with. Silence came back for them from there.

* * *

After another short amount of walking, they arrived at the front gates. The large home was in the distance, that doubled as a villain's lair. Professor Venomous had to rebuild his base with Fink after their last one got destroyed in an incident. They had down scaled it since they spent so much time at Boxmore Industries now that it was really unnecessary.

"I am Jethro," Jethro pointed out that there were no lights on, that they could see from here. Shannon got another saw out, putting it in between the gate and beginning to cut through at full force, ignoring the heavy sparks flying everywhere as she cut the bolts holding it closed apart.

"Alright, we're in," the teenage robot shoved the gate open. When she attempted to step inside, she suddenly got blasted back by a net of electricity, knocking her flat on her back. Shannon coughed. Jethro treaded over to his sister while smoke came off her nearly overcooked circuits.

"I am Jethro," Jethro commented that they had already hit the first security measure. An invisible electric wall that would shock anybody who tried to walk past the gate.

"_A warning a few seconds earlier would've been nice, Jethro…_" Shannon whined, already hating this assignment from their father. She watched as her robotic sibling rolled to the front gate, opening the small compartment in his upper chest.

He threw out several small nuts and bolts. The electric wall caught them all, beginning to super-conduct like an over sized bug zapper. After a pretty light show, the electricity suddenly dispersed in a violent burst.

"What'd you do?" Shannon interrogated her brother, amazed by that. She saw the burnt tiny bits of junk leftover on the ground.

"I am Jethro," Jethro explained. He had simply fired copper and silver bits from inside himself to overload the electricity. Not like he needed every tiny part to operate fully, or minimally in his case.

"Again, a few seconds earlier would've been nice," the orange robot repeated. She cautiously stepped through, relieved when she did not get another lethal zapping. The Boxmore bots started approaching Venomous's base.

* * *

They were very relieved to discover that there were no other active traps after that electric wall. They doubted much more was needed otherwise. Shannon knocked on the large pair of front double doors, as they waited, there was no response.

"I am Jethro," Jethro suggested to his sister. The buzzsaw loaded robot rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, like it'll be unlocked after…_ oh…_" Shannon did as he suggested, and the door simply swung open. She followed Jethro inside. They could barely see anything, given the ever increasing darkness.

Shannon tried to turn on the nearby light switch, but nothing happened after several flicks. "How can a giant electric barrier be working yet not the lights inside?" she felt a lot more annoyed for some reason. She turned on her own eye lights. In view, the whole lair was almost sparkling with cleanliness.

"I am Jethro," Jethro commented, continuing along.

"Yeah… you search here. I'll go check out the other side of the house," Shannon wondered why the tiny blue bot was the one leading things today. She didn't question it though. She simply went off to investigate a different area.

"Professor Venomous! Fink? Either of you around?" Shannon called out, going from room to room, so far finding nothing. When she got to the kitchen, the young robot didn't think anything was off in here at first, until she began to investigate further.

She opened the refrigerator. There was simply nothing. Each cabinet was emptier than the last as well. Almost like someone had cleaned every inch of Professor Venomous's base to sell it. "Huh… why's there no food?"

"I am Jethro," Jethro entered the kitchen.

"Yeah. No luck here either," Shannon replied to her brother. For sure, somebody had been in this lair, but the lack of power and running water, if Jethro was to be believed by what he discovered, implied the exact opposite.

Suddenly, without any warning, Shannon felt something jump on her back.

"_**What the-?!**_" the orange robot got slammed head first into a nearby cabinet, getting knocked to the floor from the heavy daze. Jethro had no time to react before getting drop kicked into the open refrigerator, causing the door to close with him inside with how hard he crashed into it.

"Get outta here for your own's sakes, you stupid thieves-! _Oh…_ it's just you…" a familiar higher pitched voice caught Shannon's attention. She rolled over to see an all too familiar long-haired green rat, who looked exhausted in every sense of the word.

"Fink! Thank goodness we found you!" Shannon hugged the small mouse, not paying the whole assault any attention since it was nothing unusual for Venomous's number one minion.

"_**Get off of me!**_" Fink shoved Boxman's daughter off of her, panting like she had burned up all her energy in that surprise attack. For a while, there was silence, only broken by the familiar backfire from a bad exhaust engine.

"I am Jethro," Jethro forced the refrigerator back open, only to clatter out onto the floor like a bad wind-up toy, getting back on his treads after another moment of fumbling around.

"_Hmph,_" the young girl crossed her arms, ignoring the complaint from the two.

"What happened to you? You look really bad. Where's the professor?" Shannon requested. The pink glove wearing mouse held a decent amount of hurt in her eyes at the mention of Venomous.

"Boss is… _I dunno…_ He's supposed to be back soon…" Fink whimpered. That usual hateful expression began to turn to sadness. The robotic siblings looked to each other in concern. Shannon got up out of the floor, picking up Fink into her arms to let her rest a little, since it appeared to be taking the last of her energy to even stay awake, let alone standing straight.

"It's okay, Fink. When's he supposed to be back?" Shannon asked, feeling relieved that Venomous would not be gone for much longer. One less thing for Boxman to worry about. However the query seemed to be the final straw to the young minions currently unexpectedly fragile mental state.

"_Thr… three weeks ago…_ Boss left and never came back!" Fink began to bawl, burying her face into Shannon's chest. The orange robot felt awkward. This was miles out of character for Fink, so much so that it scared the robots. She had no experience with consoling anyone this young beyond Darrell either.

"I am Jethro," Jethro advised, wishing he could help, but without arms, he couldn't really console their young associate.

"Yeah, we should head home and tell daddy what happened," Shannon agreed. Fink was latched onto her as she cried away, despite her best efforts to try and hold back failing miserably. The two leaving without investigating Professor Venomous's base further. They hoped Boxman would be able to help, though his robotic children hated to know they had to tell their father that his fears were correct.


	2. Advice

When they returned to Boxmore Industries, they wasted no time in taking Fink straight to their father's office. Things became tense in terms of how fast it happened. The young rat had gone quiet and fell asleep in Shannon's arms along the way there. She left Fink asleep on Boxman's office chair while the few family members talked.

"…And that's kinda what happened," Shannon finished describing what they had gone through.

"_Three weeks…_ He's been missing for three weeks?" Boxman held his head in despair.

"_W-_we don't know that, daddy. He could just be stuck doing work or something. He's a lot more under the radar than us. You know that," Shannon tried to comfort her father, assuring his boyfriend was fine.

"I am Jethro," Jethro said, gaining a very angry glare from the orange robot.

"Thank you, Jethro, for stating what we're all thinking…" Shannon hissed, not wanting their father to get depressed at the mere suggestion of it. "What should we do, daddy?" she asked Boxman after refocusing her attention to him. They couldn't sit around and do nothing when their largest benefactor was possibly in deep danger.

"_Just…_ there's nothing you kids can do at this point," Boxman solemnly confessed, his gaze refusing to leave from the floor.

"Daddy! There's always something we can do! We could even ask those Lakewood losers for help," Shannon argued. They were far from being on the good side with the heroes they considered rivals, however after the events of the last few months, they were on far better terms than before. She knew Venomous was the father to one of their very rivals, so naturally they would be inclined to help.

"I am Jethro," Jethro concurred. It wasn't like Lakewood Plaza Turbos staff didn't owe them a favor or two. They could use all the help they could get.

"Thank you two for being so supportive… _really…_" Boxmore Industries owner stood up, beginning to walk around his desk, approaching the sleeping Fink. "But this isn't a matter we can solve with power or numbers… at least not yet. I have to make calls around to get the word out first so we can figure out what to do from there," Boxman picked up the young child and brought her over to his daughter, who was confused. "Your new job for the time being, since the rest of your siblings are busy, is for you to take care of Fink… Please."

"_Well…_" Shannon eventually gave a hesitant nod. There was no choice. Jethro wasn't very capable of babysitting by himself. The tiny blue robot was very resourceful, sure, yet that didn't change the fact he had a lot of limitations. The lack of arms being the most troublesome one.

"I am Jethro," Jethro assured his sibling that he could take care of their father well enough by himself, wanting to be of any help he could.

"Alright, well… call me if you need anything, daddy," Shannon said before she left with Fink in her arms. The tiny rat continued to snore away. Shannon felt very nervous. _"How do I take care of Fink of all people… Alone…?"_ She mentally pondered. She and Darrell had watched her before, though they never really had to do much other than stop her from blindly rampaging around. Otherwise, Shannon had no experience babysitting organic beings. Let alone emotionally wounded ones.

* * *

Shannon was carrying the young mouse through the facility, planning on taking her straight to the play area that she and Darrell used to love spending time in. She heard a small yawn, seeing Fink waking up a little in her arms.

"_Boss…?_" the green haired girl tiredly asked, rubbing an eye with one hand.

"_N-_No Fink, it's me, Shannon," Shannon replied. Obviously Venomous's best minion got angry.

"**Put me down, now!**" Fink demanded. The orange teen robot instantly did so. There was an awkward silence for a moment. Fink was failing at hiding her truly upset nature.

"Sorry. It's just, I was assigned to be your caretaker until Daddy can find the professor," Shannon explained, unable to deny how scared she was of the mouse. She had seen that power before and she might be able to keep up with her speed, that didn't change the fact that there was no winning in a battle against her in raw strength.

"**_You?!_** I don't need no stinkin' babysitter!" Fink argued. Boxman's daughter did not get a chance to reply as they both heard a loud stomach growl that seemed to only make the mouse lose that little energy she had gotten back. Shannon suddenly had her memory refreshed.

"Hey… When was the last time you ate?" the young villain queried, recalling that there had literally been no food left back at Professor Venomous's lair.

"I don't know. I've been stealing food here and there but… I think it's been a week since I've had anything," Fink responded, losing that anger fast at the reminder of her hunger. Shannon felt terrible for the young girl, imagining how awful her nights had to be while spent starving. Stealing large amounts blindly would only draw the attention of heroes after all and fighting when she was exhausted or running on empty wasn't the brightest idea.

"Come on, let's fix that then," Shannon insisted, standing up and offering her hand to the young mouse. Fink glared momentarily. She reluctantly put her hand in hers, letting her caretaker lead them to the kitchen.

* * *

Once they had arrived at Boxmore Industries Cafeteria, Shannon was staring from her side of the table in both surprise and horror at how much Fink was eating. They had mostly food meant for robots here, but Boxman had a fair supply of food for carbon life in case other villains dropped by without warning.

_"I can already tell, daddy's going to take this out of my techno allowance…"_ Shannon held her head as another plate got stacked onto the ever-increasing pile. For not having eaten in a week, Fink was behaving more like it had been a month since she had even seen real food. "Fink, can I ask you some things?" the orange robot tried to strike up conversation, thinking maybe there was some more details she could figure out.

"Mmmhm," the mouse nodded with her mouth full.

"What've you been doing this entire time Venomous was away?" Shannon had to ask. Fink clearly had troubles. The robot wondered what all had happened in the near month the mouse spent essentially isolated.

"I kept cleaning to surprise boss when he got back," Fink stated. It was a hard job for someone as small as her to clean everything in a large lair by herself. She spent entire days, practically rigging her sleep schedule. Waiting for her boss took up her nights, exhausting her poor self.

"Why didn't you call us? If Venomous had been gone for so long, why didn't you come here so we could help you?" Shannon continued her questioning, aware that the mouse still had not really grown to any of them. She made up with Darrell yet they hadn't considered each other as friends so to speak.

"I didn't need any help. Once I'm finished eating, I'm going back home," Fink returned to her plate of food, scoffing it down, though with how fast she was eating, it was like a meal out of a five-star restaurant. Her assigned caretaker did not like the sounds of that at all.

"Fink… You had no running water or electricity," Shannon reminded the young girl. She assumed that electrical barrier had been running on a generator or a separate power grid. Nonetheless the lair was more or less just a squatter's home for Fink in its current state.

"Boss paid all the bills in cash… Once he's back, it'll all be back on again." Fink retorted. Venomous insisted upon using pure cash for bills. Venomous always said it was something about pride, though the young mouse knew it was more so paranoia about money theft. That caution her boss had only increased after making the giant investment in Boxmore Industries.

Shannon was unsure what to say. She admired that strong hope Fink had for her parent, but it was being used as an escape from reality in this case, anyone could tell that much. Shannon felt anxious about messing up. She wanted to tell the truth to try or help the child, knowing one wrong word would shatter her little heart, which already ached from missing her father. She had an idea spring to mind.

"Fink,_ I'll…_ You just eat all you want. I have to go handle something. I'll come find you as soon as I'm done, okay?" Shannon requested, trying to hide her nervousness. Fink begrudgingly nodded. She had another dozen plates of food to go after all and doubted she would be moving much after finishing it all. Boxman's daughter hurried off after that.

* * *

At Lakewood Plaza Turbo's Fitness Dojo, a blonde woman with a red headband wrapped around her forehead, Carol, a high level hero, was loading her stuff into the back of her car. To say she was in a foul mood right now was an understatement. Carol pulled out her cellphone. She saw a flood of text messages on screen that she had sent out, but not a single reply back to any of them.

"_Uh…_ Carol?"

Carol looked over her shoulder. Shannon was standing there, seemingly having came from nowhere.

"Hey, can I-!" Shannon had no chance to speak, her legs were swept out from underneath her by Carol, who threw her over her shoulder and slammed her onto the pavement below. Shannon squeaked out, feeling a boot on her chest. The angry mother stood above her, looking ready to turn the orange robot into scrap metal.

"I'm not in the mood for a fight today," Carol seethed, "And I really would rather my son didn't have to deal with any assaults on the plaza the day before his birthday, so if you want a fight, I'll…"

"_**N-no no no no no!**_ I'm not here to attack! I need your help!" Shannon exclaimed, frantically waving her arms defensively. She got nothing but a suspicious glare in reply at first, she could tell that the fitness dojo owner had just been looking for the first excuse to release that building anger.

"I'm not in a generous mood right now. I have to go beat some sense into somebody," Carol removed her boot from Shannon's chest and released her grip on her arm, closing the trunk of her car before beginning to step away

"_Wa-_wait!" Shannon stood up, "I don't need muscle help! I need advice, nothing more!"

The dojo owner just opened the driver's side door of her car.

"Please! I need the help of a mother! And I'll do anything for it," Shannon begged. Carol paused, casting her gaze over to the young Boxmore bot. She seemed to be genuine in her pleas. The high level hero felt a sense of guilt hitting her now because of the overly harsh treatment.

"Alright… I got a few minutes. Come on," Carol gave in with a reluctant sigh, closing her car door and motioning for Shannon to follow her. The robot felt relieved. She followed the blonde woman into the empty fitness dojo, so none of the plaza regulars would bother them. Every hero tended to get understandably jumpy upon the sight of the Boxmore villains.

* * *

Things were rather awkwardly silent for the two. They were seated at a table. It was doing little for Shannon's high anxiety.

"Sorry about that out there… it's been a pretty rough week," Carol was starting to calm down somewhat, though it was more so that she could have her usual upbeat cheery personality to hopefully be of help to whatever Boxman's daughter needed.

"So it's K.O.'s birthday? I'm sorry, I didn't know… there aren't any attacks planned today though, everyone is out on work. I'll make sure Daddy doesn't schedule any for tomorrow either…" replied Shannon. Given Boxman's current issues though, she knew that would be easy enough. She just hated the circumstances.

"I appreciate it. Now what'd you need help with?" Asked Carol, grateful for the kind act. The Boxmore family might not be that powerful, it didn't make them any less annoying to deal with whenever they did attack.

"I have to take care of someone, but I've never taken care of a child, and…" Shannon began, pausing, looking ashamed to be crawling to a hero for help, "She's in a really bad spot. Her dads missing, she's been alone for nearly a month, yet she wants to go back home to make sure she's there for when he comes back." Shannon began sharing the experience of what had been going on the last day.

"She was going to kill herself waiting for him if daddy hadn't sent me and Jethro to check up on them… she's so stubborn and wants to go back. I don't know how to tell her that he's probably never going to come back. He's been gone for a month. I don't want to hurt her more, she's already broken down on me nearly twice now…" Shannon was starting to talk faster and faster the longer she went on with her explanation.

"Wait, wait," Carol raised a hand, insisting she calmed down, "You're talking about Fink, aren't you? Laser… I mean, Venomous is missing?" Carol was shocked. She had been trying to talk to that man for so long. He was the father of K.O., and the single mom had wanted him to be there for their son's birthday. Not her own choice there but it was what their son wished for.

"_Y-_yeah," Shannon nodded, "He took off for work one week and never came back. We have no clue where he is either. Daddy's working on it now, but I got assigned to take care of Fink."

"_Wow…_ if you hadn't shown up when you did, I was gonna go tear down his base lookin' for him," Carol stated. Despite the ordeal of the last few months, K.O. insisted on not cutting Venomous out of his life. He wanted his father to at least be involved. Fink was also technically his sister by extension as result, though the single mother did not like the young mouse all that much due to her attitude.

"So you don't know where he is either…" Shannon solemnly muttered. She did want to ask Carol about that as well. Even if she knew it was a vague hope, it didn't help her already shaken confidence.

"Thanks for letting me know…" sighed Carol. All the weeks she had spent trying to contact Professor Venomous had built up her rage, the young robot girl had been unfortunately the first one she could take it out on. She leaned back in her chair. "As for Fink, I dunno what to tell you…"

"What do you mean?" Shannon felt disheartened, "Haven't you ever had something like this happen with K.O.?"

"K.O. is K.O., and Fink is Fink… Sure, I could tell you about what I've gone through to help him. Really, it's like taking care of twins whenever it's T.K.O.'s turn to come out. But Fink is a completely different kid. I dunno anything about her either," Carol began explaining, appreciative of being treated with such respect by one of Boxman's own children, especially one with such an ego complex. Yet as far as she could say, her own experiences were worthless in this case.

"You have to do what you think is right…" she stood up and stretched, "I can tell you one thing though, don't pretend like you can minimize the pain. The more you hesitate the worse it'll get, because no matter what, you will have to hurt them."

Shannon did not like the sound of that. "Can't you word it any better than that?" She whimpered.

Carol shrugged. "The truth is pain, and it usually hurts a lot more than any kick or punch. But no matter what, it always makes the person that hears it stronger," Carol took out a pen and wrote down her phone number on the robot teenager's hand. "Please let me know if you find out anything with Venomous or if I can help. Just be honest and go with your maternal instincts. You'll be fine," Carol patted Shannon's back reassuringly.

The orange robot sighed, feeling like she had gotten advice that was useful in most regards. She just had no maternal instincts though, which added onto the worry. "Thanks… I better get back to Boxmore," Shannon then took her leave. Carol watching her wander off, looking more confused really.

The dojo owner rubbed her own head. "_Dang it, Venomous. I swear if you're up to no good, I'm going to beat you within an inch of your life,_" Carol bitterly mumbled to herself, annoyed and worried. She hated that man for all he did to their son, yet he swore to make it up to them. She locked the door to the dojo before continuing to leave, hoping everything would work out for everybody.

* * *

When Shannon got back to Boxmore Industries HQ, she wanted to immediately go to try and find Fink, though she heard a familiar engine backfire during her walk.

"I am Jethro," Jethro spoke up, catching up with his sister. His words made her pause in place.

"Daddy passed out?! Do you need me to help?" Shannon offered, yet wondered why her tiny blue brother hadn't contacted her immediately when it happened.

"I am Jethro," Jethro responded. Boxman had exhausted himself out from apparently being awake several days in worry. As result, Jethro had taken lead on investigating the whereabouts of Professor Venomous while their father slept. All their attempts at gaining leads were turning up less than nothing unfortunately.

"Thanks Jethro, keep up the good work," Shannon went off a separate way to relocate the mouse she was assigned to take care of, hoping Jethro could at least find something.

* * *

She was able to find Fink in the lounge, still enjoying her post meal relaxation, resisting her desire to go right back to sleep to try and make up for her insomnia these last couple of weeks.

Shannon was relieved. She had been paranoid that Fink would have snuck away after she finished eating the pile of food she was given, or the second she was left unattended.

"You look comfortable," Boxman's daughter commented, taking a seat beside the professor's favorite minion.

"Jethro said you'd take me home," Fink answered. That had been the only way for Jethro to stop the mouse from storming out alone back to that husk of a home.

"_Jethro did?_" Shannon gave an annoyed grin. It was just her trying her best to hide her anger over Jethro lying to keep the mouse from seemingly doing whatever she pleased, to buy time for his sister to handle whatever she needed to do. She took in a moment to think on her words.

"Well... no, I'm not going to take you home. I think you should stay here, with us, until we can find your boss," Shannon came out and said it point blank. She was worried though about not being able to do this well at all.

"I told you, I don't need to stay with you. Boss'll be home tonight, I'm sure of it!" the annoyed Fink stood up, looking ready to stomp out on the spot. Her babysitter swallowed, nervous. She had an idea spring to mind thankfully.

"Fink, you're not thinking like he would… If I were in his shoes, I'd not go looking for you at home. I'd be looking here, where the people I trust most would be," Shannon argued. If Venomous was coming back, he would go straight to Boxmore Industries. Boxman and his robotic family were realistically all they had as family and friends. Otherwise the professor and mouse only had each other.

Fink did seem to actually pause at that counter-argument. She did not want to show her agreeing with the buzzsaw loaded robot however.

"I have to go back to make sure the defenses are back online, because of all the thieves that keep trying to break into boss's base," Fink mumbled. Shannon went wide eyed slightly upon realizing that she and Jethro had most likely sabotaged the only real means of protection Professor Venomous's base had at the moment.

"_**Erm…**_ _I-_I'm sure it'll be fine," the orange teenage robot insisted with a fake smile, hoping that would be true. The air was tense. Fink had been partially convinced, though now seemed more torn than ever on whether or not to actually listen to her caretaker.

"Hey, I have an idea. How about you help me with something?" Shannon suggested. Fink giving her an unamused glare. She was expecting nothing more than a boring distraction to keep her occupied.

"What is it?" the overly attached young girl requested, her tail twitching to express her annoyance.

"It's, _uh…_ It's your brother's birthday tomorrow and I wanted to make him a present," Shannon simply stated, thinking it was the least she could do for the youngest bodega hero. He always treated them nicely outside of fights, honestly K.O. rarely treated anyone like they were 100% a pure villain. That was just one of his strengths, and unfortunately a giant weakness of his own too.

"Why would I do that?" Fink hated K.O. He had stolen so much of Professor Venomous's attention that it drove her to nothing short of sheer jealousy.

"Because your boss wanted to go to his birthday party, and I'm sure you're interested in getting to know the rest of your family… without the whole destroying all of Neutral Zone or beating them in fights," Shannon elaborated, trying to phrase it like Fink had a chance at stealing Carol's attention for herself if she got to know her technical half family more. The mouse certainly had her ears perk up at the idea, more so from the revenge aspect of it.

"Fine. I'll help make some stinkin' presents," Fink crossed her arms, pouting slightly, knowing this meant she was agreeing to have Shannon babysit her for longer.

"_**Great!** _Come on, I have a ton of ideas!" the teenage robot insisted, taking Fink's hand in her own as she led her away from the lounge. The tiny mouse wanted to feel angry, like she was being trapped here. Instead, she felt more a hollow comfort. She didn't know what to think anymore. She simply stayed quiet, gripping Shannons hand tightly, following her caretaker along.

* * *

The rest of the afternoon went by before they knew it. Shannon and Fink spent a lot of time working on a few presents to give K.O. tomorrow. Two wrapped boxes rested nearby, with little ribbons on top of them.

The orange robot brought a blanket over to Fink, who was sleeping on the floor after she passed out shortly after finishing the gifts. Shannon carefully draped it over the exhausted mouse, before lifting her head gently to slip a pillow underneath her.

"_You take it easy. you've earned a lot of rest,_" Shannon hummed quietly, running her hand through the mouse's hair to comfort her. She saw a small peaceful smile appearing on Fink's sleepy face.

There was a light tapping on the open door. The buzzsaw loaded robot looked over her shoulder to see a familiar pair of mechanical siblings of hers. A pair of which she had not seen since earlier today when they initially abandoned her.

"Wow… I thought Jethro was pranking us when he said you were babysitting Fink," Darrell, the one-eyed red machine, spoke up in surprise.

"You are looking quite motherly this evening," Raymond, the sharp-nosed sports lover, chuckled. They both fell silent when they saw her on the verge of exploding into angered eruption.

"You two are coming with me," Shannon commanded them, dragging her brothers by the arms. They feared they would get a scolding from her for the stunt they pulled, yet they didn't expect this much anger.

* * *

The two robots were shoved into the room and thrown to the floor. Shannon locked the door behind themselves immediately.

"Where do you two think you've been?!" the teenage robot demanded, barely holding back to give them a chance to talk.

"We simply ran out and did chores, that's all," Raymond claimed, not able to deny his nervousness.

"Did daddy give you a hard time?" Darrell worriedly queried, only to have a buzzsaw thrown past him, barely missing and impaling the wall, making them both clam up again.

"No. In fact, daddy has actually been miserable all day! He worked himself to exhaustion and passed out. Professor Venomous has been missing for a month, and Fink nearly starved to death waiting for him!" Shannon grabbed both of them by their collars and pinned the two against the wall. "I've spent most of today taking care of Fink, trying to convince her to stay with us instead of going back home, which, might I add, has no power, water or food! And all you two have been doing today was parading around doing whatever you pretended was chores!"

"Her situation was really that dire?" asked Raymond. He and Darrell were understandably shocked by all the words they took in, "Professor Venomous is… missing?!"

"Yes, he's missing. Jethro's still trying to find him," Shannon let them go, watching them slide to the floor, the two looking to one another. "I'm not mad that you two bailed on me and left us to handle everything. I'm mad because probably everything is about to change and they'll need us to change as well. We have to get used to it," Shannon turned and walked away, not even wanting to talk to them anymore at this point. She'd get nothing but excuses. She stormed off, leaving her brothers there in silence.

"I guess that explains why Jethro insisted on us hearing what happened from Shannon…" Raymond commented, now feeling terrible.

"Fink nearly died…? And Venomous is missing?" Darrell couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Come," Raymond stood up and dusted himself, "We should go help Jethro… We'll earn Shannon's forgiveness that way."

"_W-_wait. Shouldn't we help Shannon with Fink? You know how crazy she can get," Darrell countered. His brother shrugged, opening the door.

"You saw for yourself. Shannon will make a fine parental unit for the time being. Though if Venomous is not able to be located, somebody will have to take care of Fink," Raymond went off to find Jethro, doubting they'd get an apology from Shannon, yet he hoped they could at least earn her thanks for helping.

"Poor Fink… I hope we can find the professor alive," Darrell sighed, following to help as well. They had to take some of the burden off of their father. Even if after a month, they doubted they would find Venomous, alive or otherwise.

* * *

During the middle of the night, Fink began to stir a little in her sleep. The young mouse woke up shortly thereafter. When she saw the familiar walls of Boxmore industries, she was saddened. She always hoped to wake up with boss at her bedside.

Instead, Fink was sleeping on the floor in a place she hated. She tried to sit up when she felt something wrapped around her midsection.

"Eh?" Fink looked over her shoulder. Shannon was asleep beside her, with an orange arm around her. She fell asleep trying to keep her comforted.

The professor's favorite minion initially wanted to listen to her body when it demanded more sleep. She felt so comfortable like this. Fink moved Shannon's hand aside before standing up and beginning to leave the room.

* * *

After another trip to the cafeteria to steal a large sandwich and can of soda for a midnight snack, the young mouse was making her way to Boxman's office, the head of the factory.

"At least the food's good here," Fink said, munching on the last of her food and downing it with another large chug of the soda, before chucking the now empty soda into a nearby trash can made out of Jethro parts, which the Lakewood Plaza heroes made as a minor insult to their enemies.

"_What the-?_" Fink squeaked in confusion. Upon stepping into Boxman's office, the round man himself was missing. Boxman was fast asleep in his bed, yet what she saw in place gave her little confidence with who she was staying with for being helpful with finding the professor.

Darrell was buried under a pile of folders full of documents. Raymond was going over a large amount of papers himself with a giant pegboard off to the side and location photos on them, while Jethro was entangled in several horribly misused phone lines.

"_I'm starting to wonder why boss invested anything in you guys…_" Fink grumbled, wishing she had listened to her brain when it demanded her to stay asleep. "**What're you buckets of bolts doing?!**" Fink then shouted to snap them all back to focusing on her, though she had to kick Jethro out of his tangle of wires.

"_W-_we're trying to find Professor Venomous," Darrell simply replied, trying to get himself out from the paperwork that had essentially drowned him.

"I am Jethro," Jethro stated after rolling himself upright again.

"Emphasis on trying," Raymond added to his siblings words. Sadly, it was just the four Boxmore bots that would be available for a while. The rest of their family wouldn't be back from trying to impress investors for another couple of days at least.

"Why? I'm sure he'll be back tomorrow, like I told Jethro and Shannon earlier," Fink repeated her belief, ignoring the fact that she had been saying those exact words to herself this entire month. She wondered if they had found some signs of Venomous being in trouble when they broke into their home and weren't telling her.

"Well, when someone vanishes for a month, it tends to raise alarm bells. Father is terribly worried. We just want to make sure Professor Venomous is safe for everybody's sake," the sports loving robot tried to put it simply, trying not to outright say what he was thinking. There were several possibilities here, most of which were either bad or depressing to even consider.

"So far, there's just nothing other than people who think they saw him around," Darrell finished for his brother, and despite wanting to investigate those claims, they couldn't. They had nothing concrete it would only waste their time.

"I am Jethro," Jethro rolled to Fink, who glared at him.

"Fine," she agreed to talk with him privately, the two leaving Boxman's office. She guessed she could try talking to Boxmore Industries' owner sometime in the morning. "What is it you wanted to talk about?" Fink asked. She hated all the one on one talks she had been getting lately.

"I am Jethro," Jethro questioned, the blue robot unable to deny his curiosity.

"Yeah, yeah… thanks for checking on me," Fink begrudgingly thanked him, unable to deny how much longer she would have been able to really tolerate surviving on her own. The exhaustion and hunger together probably would have taken her down for good, even if she hated to admit it.

"I am Jethro," Jethro continued as they idly walked side by side with no real direction throughout the facility.

"Shannon's fine… I guess," the mouse sighed, her tail twitching in irritation at all this banter. It made the request to have a one on one conversation feel wasted. It was like a checkup at the doctor's.

"I am Jethro," the treaded bin was glad to hear it. Fink was unsure how to explain it. She felt weird with Shannon. The young rat had to really fight with herself to resist that desire to cling onto Boxman's daughter like she was a step-boss.

Fink hated herself whenever that craving came back. Jethro didn't judge her for it, nor did he dare to comment on how cute he found it. He simply brushed past it.

"I am Jethro," Jethro asked, thinking their guest had overlooked a detail that might help them find Professor Venomous. He wanted to know even the smallest of things.

"No, boss was fine. He was happy. He had gotten a giant deal for a batch of glorbs that week. He just left for work to handle the deal, and hasn't come home yet," Fink repeated what had happened. Nothing was unusual. Everything was normal. Though it did not need to be said that Jethro severely doubted Professor Venomous returning at all.

"I am Jethro," he wondered why the professor's number one minion had not been taken along for this work. The two were rarely separated at all.

"Boss said I wasn't allowed to go this time. He said I was too young! And that they wouldn't let me in. I even promised to wear my special leash, but he said it wouldn't work this time," Fink exclaimed, sounding more upset at that than anything. She was terrible at taking no for an answer.

Jethro tried to resist laughing at the recollection of the several villain conventions, when they had seen the mouse wearing a child leash to subvert the child ban rules. Even if Venomous always told her it was so they could never get separated, a lot of villains would kill to get any leverage on the rich hero turned villain. They weren't above kidnapping a child to do it either. "I am Jethro," Jethro tried to keep conversing, only to feel himself get picked up off the ground. A menacing aura emanated from Fink as her patience wore thin.

"Get… to the point… of this talk," she growled. The caffeine from the soda was starting to wear off already and her desire to crumple to the floor to go right back to sleep was returning in contrast.

"I am Jethro," Jethro's question got him dunked onto the floor with a loud thud. No surprise there. The blue robot rolled back onto his treads, seeing Fink beginning to breathe heavily.

"_Boss… wouldn't do that…_" she gritted her teeth.

"I am Jethro," Jethro continued. If he shut up every time somebody hit him, he would be a mute. Fink was shaking, hyperventilating now. "I am Jethro," the surprisingly resourceful robot continued, aware that this suggestion might hurt a lot, yet it seemed to be the most sensible explanation to what had happened.

"_**SHUT UP!**_ Boss loved me way more than that stupid brat!" Fink cried. Jethro didn't get another word out. Seeing the mouse so upset made him feel guilty. "_He…He'll be back for me… Boss always is there for me…_" she sniffled, trying to resist crying despite the few tears that already had escaped her eyes. The blue bot turned around and rolled past her.

"I am Jethro," Jethro apologized and bid her goodnight, not wishing to upset Fink further, though knew it was unfortunately far too late for that now. He paid not much mind when she ran off.


	3. Party Woes

As the early morning rolled around, Shannon's eyelids fluttered open. She felt an unexpected weight on top of her chest. Boxman's daughter looked down, surprised to see Fink latched onto her tightly as she slept.

Shannon could only assume little Fink had a bad dream. She enjoyed this warm feeling though. Fink seemed very content as well while she snored. She rubbed Fink's back, wanting to appreciate the feeling while it lasted.

_"Maybe she's really warming up to me,"_ Shannon hummed quietly to herself, starting to think Carol's advice had been working out wonderfully so far. She suddenly heard a knock on the open door. She tilted her head back, and she saw Raymond standing there.

"Apologies for the disturbance, Elder sister, but we've made a discovery for Venomous's possible whereabouts," the sports bot simply said.

"Really?" said Shannon, staring in awe, "Let me just wake Fink and…"

"_No, Shannon,_" Raymond said, his tone hushed as he approached her with a gesture for her to keep her voice toned down. "Perhaps it would be wiser to leave her asleep for now."

His older sister looked disheartened, but she nodded. She gently detached Fink from herself after a lot of effort, trying her best not to reawaken her, leaving the young mouse lying on her makeshift bedding on the floor.

"I didn't know you were searching for Professor Venomous too," Shannon had to comment once they were out of the room, leaving Fink to keep peacefully slumbering away.

"Yes, well… Darrell and I would be terrible sons to not be aiding with such an important task from father, especially when you're handling the hardest part of said task," Raymond stated, looking to the sleeping child. He found it amazing to see her so peaceful, despite her usual cranky self. He was more so impressed that his sister had not been torn apart already by the mouse a hundred times while they were gone. "Anyway, here," he handed to Shannon a folder.

"What's this?" Shannon asked. If their father's commonly used words were applied, it was nightmare level of paperwork. She assumed Boxman was still sleeping heavily, staying up for days on end would make anyone want to sleep for days to regain their energy.

"An ongoing overlong argument between two different police stations. One in Neutral Zone and the other within Battleburg 3K," Raymond explained. Barely reading one paragraph of that was indeed a confusing mess. "So, these two places have been arguing. For weeks. As for who would spend the money to take the vehicle, it's parked literally on the borderline on a bridge of both sides," he put it simply so she would not need to handle a mental malfunction just from trying to read through it all.

"So, you found his car? I didn't even know daddy had any police connections," Shannon was amazed at the progress her brothers had made over the night.

"Well... More so illegally hacked into a network. Didn't change how ecstatic they were to hear that we would go pick it up," Raymond said. He and Darrell had been getting ready to go get Professor Venomous's vehicle. He had simply wanted to inform their sister that they had made some progress.

"I was hoping you were going to tell me that Venomous was just stuck in a prison somewhere and all we had to do was break him out," Shannon confessed, though knew that man was strong and clever enough to handle matters on his own in that regard.

"I wish that were the case. I'm sorry, my dear sister, but… I went through those documents a few times, and Venomous's personal vehicle was cleaned out far too thoroughly to be the work of simple thieves, especially since they did not touch any of the cars parts." Raymond sighed, and then began to leave. All that was left in the atmosphere now was tense uncertainty.

"_That means he probably left on his own…_" the orange robot held her head. Cleaning out, vanishing without a trace, all of it was lining up perfectly with a man who simply wanted to escape his life to start anew. But why, she wondered, why would he leave Fisk behind? That part made no sense.

"_Did I miss something…?_" Fink's tired voice scared her caretaker. Shannon instinctively released a buzzsaw and tore apart the documents as fast as she could before turning to the mouse quickly, acting innocently enough.

"_N-_no, nothing! Just… The security camera we had set up at your home hasn't picked up anything, that's all," the orange robot went with the first lie she had in mind. The green haired mouse gave a worried look with her tired face.

"Shannon…?" Fink grabbed her hand, making the teenage robot anxious.

"_Ye-_yes Fink?" Shannon replied, keeping that earnest smile out of worry.

"I'm hungry," the tiny mouse stated.

_"I'm starting to think your stomach's a bottomless pit now…"_ the robot girl mentally pondered, relieved. She nodded, squeezing Fink's hand back in trade "Sure. I can whip something up real quick, and afterwards we can drop the presents off with Carol. How does that sound?" she offered.

"Okay," Fink nodded, more than glad to do that. Shannon knew how early the fitness dojo owner liked to arrive to the plaza. Boxman tracked every hero's routine at the plaza, entrance and exit schedules especially. His children all knew it well since attacking an uninhabited area was boring beyond belief.

* * *

Carol had just arrived at the fitness dojo in her car. She stepped out of it.

"So, how's it feel to be turning nine today, K.O.?" asked Carol, watching her birthday boy hop out from the backseat through the window with an excited flip.

"You bet mommy! One step closer to being a stronger hero!" said K.O., ecstatic, "You think Venomous will come?" he couldn't decide on what to call his biological father. It was a constant struggle of his own sometimes. He would sometimes call him dad, but other times he would call him Laserblast, which his father hated being called, what with being his former hero name, as result he tended to go with Venomous.

"I… I'm sorry peanut, but the truth is, he won't be making it," Carol started. She had been pondering on how to tell him that Professor Venomous had been missing for a month. His reaction was what really worried her.

Before Carol could continue, a familiar voice chimed up. "Hey! Carol!" Shannon called, approaching from nearby, casually strolling toward them with Fink beside her, who was holding her hand tightly as she followed slightly behind them.

"Shannon? Fink?" K.O. was surprised. Normally he would get ready to protect his mother, but the lack of an extravagant entrance via large box tended to mean the Boxmore family was not there for combat. The young hero did not understand why his technical sister was there though.

"Hey you two, glad to see you both doing alright," Carol greeted them. Shannon looked happy, and so did Fink, even if she looked reluctant to be there.

"Thanks. It's been a rough morning," Shannon let go of her young associate's hand.

"We brought some presents for you, me and Fink made them ourselves," Shannon stated, watching as Fink carelessly shoved the two wrapped boxes into K.O.'s arms with enough force to nearly knock him over.

"Wow, thanks! I didn't know you would be coming. Does that mean Venomous will come after all?" K.O. asked his sister with hope in his eyes. The green haired girl stared at the ground. The lack of her boss showing up last night or this morning had demoralized her. Jethro's talk last night had done little for Fink's mood either.

"Hey, K.O., why don't you go get some ice cream with Fink? I need to talk with Shannon," Carol suggested, giving her son a handful of technos. The brush haired boy nodded, letting his mother take the presents since he wasn't allowed to open them yet.

"Come on, Fink! I bet I know what you'll like," K.O. grabbed Fink by the wrist and dragged her off, excited.

"I can walk! Let go of me, you stinkin' hero! I'm stronger than you!" Fink's rambling faded out as she was taken away. The teenage robot let out a relieved sigh, holding her head.

"Judging by that face, you found Venomous?" the single mother asked, resting the birthday presents aside. She knew that face when she saw it. Carol had been working for P.O.I.N.T. long enough to read expressions.

"We found his car this morning. Raymond and Darrell left to go retrieve it a while ago," Shannon claimed, rubbing the back of her neck in worry. She felt Carol put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"Relax and talk to me. What'd you find?" the high-level hero insisted, glad she at least decided to tell her in person rather than over the phone.

"That's the thing. They aren't back yet, but so far nothing… just like his home, there was nothing. It's like professor Venomous wanted to leave no trace behind," Shannon sounded steadily hopeless at this point, "Everyone available is working to the bolts to find him, but it's like he doesn't want to be found."

"You're thinking he's left you all to start over somewhere else?" Carol guessed.

"Maybe…" Shannon nodded. The single mother shook her head, feeling bad. Venomous had essentially done that to her before K.O. was born, the circumstances being far different though. "…Except he left Fink behind. Which is the one part I can't understand, why would he do such a thing," Shannon noted.

"You want me to try talking to her?" Carol offered. Boxman's daughter shook her head.

"No. Fink knows nothing about what could've happened to Venomous either…" Shannon stated. She would have seen through the young mouse if she was lying, easily, but that emotional torment Fink had put herself through was impossible to fake.

"Can I ask you something?" The P.O.I.N.T. member requested. She would ask if her advice had been working, though it was clear by how the villain and minion were getting along that the advice had been effective thus far.

"_Um…_ sure," Shannon nodded. The robot felt she owed Carol enough to at least listen, yet the serious tone to the hero's voice made her anxious.

"Are you able to take care of Fink?" Carol asked, turning her full focus onto her.

"I have so far, haven't I?" Shannon giggled jokingly. The unamused expression she got in return from the hero made her stop instantly.

"I meant can **_YOU_** take care of Fink? Not as a babysitter but as a mother. She'll need somebody in her life now that Venomous is gone," Carol began. She was uncertain how far maternal instinct really worked with robotic beings. So far Shannon seemed to be the shining example. "Truth is, you've done an amazing job so far. But this is a giant responsibility. No amount of hands can help if you can't even make a long-term connection."

"Actually I think we're starting to bond really well… what's your point though?" asked Shannon, wondering if Carol was going to tell her to give Fink up to foster care.

Carol began to rummage around in her pocket. "My point is that if you have any doubts that you can do this, then… I can take her in," she pulled out her phone. She noticed a text message showing on screen.

Shannon was confused. She didn't know whether to feel grateful or insulted. "You're offering to raise Fink?" she asked, unable to believe this.

"Yeah, I am. Because… Well, I've learned a lot thanks to T.K.O. on how their types feel and think, because Fink will need somebody strong with experience," Carol nodded. T.K.O. and Fink's personalities weren't the farthest apart for sure.

"I can't do that to Fink… she needs a villain to raise her," Shannon responded. She knew she herself wasn't an adult yet, she doubted anyone else could handle her as well as the Boxmore family could, even if she had to handle most of it by herself. "I appreciate you trying to help, really… I better go find her before she breaks something," Shannon wanted to leave. She had to inform the mouse that Professor Venomous might never return for unknown reasons. She was scared how Fink would react, but she had been hesitating.

"Alright, if you're sure… I'll see you guys at the party?" Carol asked.

"Party?" Shannon chirped.

"Yeah! K.O.'s birthday party starts soon. I was about to have to buy time to distract him from going to the bodega, but you two showed up at the perfect moment," Carol lightly laughed, thankful that Fink and her babysitter came when they did. The single mother had been dreading talking to K.O. about Venomous. Shannon had saved her from that for the moment so she could gather herself.

"You really wouldn't mind if we came?" asked the astonished Shannon.

"Heck, you brought my son presents and have been awfully nice lately. Plus you guys've earned some rest from hunting for Venomous," the single mother declared, "Just you and Fink though. Not your entire family. You two being there alone'll make some jumpy."

Shannon nodded. Just because the two sides were on better terms didn't change the hero villain status both sides held. She knew that. "Thank you. And don't worry, everyone is too busy to come."

"Go round up the kids and bring them to the bodega, please. I'll make sure everything is finished getting ready," Carol took the two presents and made to leave for Gar's Bodega.

"Well, I hope I don't find them fighting," Shannon dreaded the thought of trying to break up a fight between the two alone the teenage robot hurried off to find Fink and K.O. not sure how long she had spent talking with Carol

* * *

Fink sat in a bitter silence. She had barely touched the ice cream she had been given. "_I was supposed to be stealing your mom's attention. Not yours…_" the young mouse mumbled irritably. Her brother already was munching through his cone, having not heard what she just said.

"Hey, Fink, can I ask you something?" K.O. chimed up after he finished cannibalizing the last of the frozen treat.

"What?" Fink threw her ice cream aside before crossing her arms, barely giving him the time of day.

"Sorry I haven't been to dad's lately. I wanted to ask if he was coming to see me today?" asked K.O., looking like he always did innocent and oblivious.

"How am I supposed to know? Ya stupid momma's boy! Boss is…" Fink paused. That small little glimmer of hope was in her eyes that Professor Venomous might not miss such an important event. K.O. was worried at her sudden expressions.

"If I'm a mommy's boy, does that mean you're a daddy's girl?" he asked, unintentionally supporting her, yet received no reply. His technical sister hugged him.

"Boss'll definitely show up! He'll have to!" Fink declared. Now K.O. was the silent one, mainly out of terror. He hadn't seen anyone act this erratic since Enid got stuck in that situation between Red Action and Elodie. That was the last thing he wanted to recall on his birthday.

"_T-_that's great, _um…_ are you okay?" K.O. asked. He knew he was always the upbeat type, yet now he was worried about the mouse needing help.

"Shannon talked me into staying with them until boss shows back up. He's been away on a long job," Fink stated, finally letting go of him when it registered what exactly she was doing, having to resist shoving him off the bench entirely.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't know… If I had known, me and Dendy could've kept you company," K.O. said. He regretted leaving the rat on her own like that. He was unsure if it was familial obligation or his general sense of kindness that made him feel that way.

"I don't think I can tolerate your girlfriend too long," Fink commented. Whenever she had interacted with Dendy, it ended with her gaining a massive headache by the end of it. Her brother gained a light crimson to his cheeks.

"How'd you know?" K.O. asked innocently enough. His sister cocked an eyebrow.

"How'd I know what?" Fink huffed.

"That me and Dendy were dating? She gets really embarrassed whenever someone talks about us being boyfriend and girlfriend though," K.O. stated, guessing he was similar to his girlfriend in that regard. Fink blinked for a moment.

"I was joking! Sheesh… you really suck at talking, and especially at keeping secrets if that was supposed to be one!" Fink giggled, finding his embarrassed expression adorable. K.O. was too innocent to be mad around. "How long have you two been dating?" she tried to continue the talk, enjoying pushing his buttons more than she probably should.

"_Um… a-_about a month now…" K.O. answered through his ever-increasing sheepishness.

"And what tier are you at? Y'know there's fifteen, right?" Fink deviously grinned. Her brother's vocal chords locked up out of embarrassment upon hearing that query, sending the mouse into an intense laughing fit. K.O. sat there, his face as red as a tomato.

As it happened, Shannon approached them from nearby. She heard Fink laughing, which gave her a fair amount of hope that she was doing better. "Fink! K.O.! Are you two done with your ice cream?" Shannon called out to them. Fink caught her breath and hopped up over the bench.

"Yeah. I've just been teasing K.O.," the young girl said, guessing it would take K.O. a minute or two to get over his embarrassment.

"Well… at least you're being nice for his birthday?" the young Boxmore bot tried to say in a positive manner, though did not really know how.

"Carol invited us to his party at the bodega. Do you wanna go?" Shannon more so requested than offered, wanting to mainly keep close to Carol for that false comfort from being near a real mother.

"Yeah, sure," Fink nodded.

"Because I'm sure there'll be good food you can spend time with your brother, and-… wait did you actually agree with me without an argument?" Shannon had to do a double take. Most of the time that she had been taking care of the mouse, it took convincing to get Fink to agree to do anything. She had already pre-emptively tried to give reasons to go to this party.

"I'm tired of that stupid factory," Fink exclaimed, trying to resist announcing her obvious hope of expecting Venomous to appear at K.O.'s birthday party.

Shannon inwardly groaned. Aware that she also had to tell her that said factory might be her new home. Another thing to add onto the growing sticky note of dread inside her own head. "K.O.! Come on, we need you to help us get something at the bodega!" the orange robot called to the young boy, trying to not ruin the surprise. It was more than enough to get him up and rushing over.

"Sure! Anything!" K.O. eagerly walked ahead. Shannon could not deny that that enthusiasm was starting to rub off on her. She still couldn't believe he was as strong as he was, considering his power when they first met.

"Come on, boss, let's go!" Fink insisted, taking off to catch up to her brother. Shannon was about to follow, but paused, unsure if the mouse had realized what she had just called the teenage robot.

"Did she call me boss…?" Shannon wondered if Fink had either not been paying attention or was still suffering from exhaustion. The Boxmore bot followed along, not wanting Venomous's daughter to get left in an awkward position all by herself with heroes.

* * *

When the trio arrived at Gar's Bodega, they saw it was completely empty. Nobody was there.

"What'd you need help getting?" K.O. turned to them, not noting the whole lack of his co-workers, customers and general sense of emptiness there was across most of the plaza. His technical sibling and one of his many rivals sure noticed though.

"_**Happy birthday!**_" a cheer sounded. A torrent of confetti balloons, loud poppers and combined cheer of dozens of heroes followed.

K.O. stared, awestruck. He hadn't anticipated the most obvious surprise party in existence.

"Whoops. _Uh…_ sorry about that. You two okay?" Carol asked, coming to the villain and henchwoman.

"_My ears…_" Fink squeaked, holding her head sorely.

"Give me a second. My speakers are resetting," Shannon replied. She hadn't planned on the noise volume or how sensitive the mouse's ears were.

While most of the heroes were distracted with K.O.'s many birthday wishes, a purple haired cashier and alien stockroom worker stepped toward the two villains.

"Don't tell me you're here to attack?" the cashier, Enid, looked ready to kick them back to Boxmore Industries HQ already.

"Can't we put off the fight til tomorrow? It's K.O.'s b-day today," Radicles, the one responsible for managing inventory with his psychic abilities, was not really in the mood to fight when he had spent all this time helping set up a party.

"Hey, relax you two, I invited them," Carol assured her son's best friends and co-workers could relax.

"_Y-_yeah! I made sure no attacks were scheduled for today or tomorrow," Shannon added. The two bodega workers looked to each other, confused. There had been a lack of attacks these last few days, or at least any real ones. They didn't realize it until now.

"_Uhhh…_ Thanks?" Enid felt awkward, guessing it was fine for them to be there, even if Fink was the definition of chaotic unpredictable.

"Well, come on then! The party's just getting started," Radicles looked more than welcoming of the two, since they were on better terms with Boxmore, even if it was hit or miss.

Shannon could see Fink already getting pulled into playing with the other young kids by K.O. without much choice in the matter, as if karma for poking fun at him earlier had come back to bite her.

"I better go help get the cake out. Come on, Rad," Carol insisted, wanting to make use of his powers. Radicles nodded, gladly following along, leaving the two teenage girls there, awkwardly alone.

"I understand you coming, _but…_ Why's Fink with you?" Enid tried to strike up conversation. She never saw Fink and Shannon getting along before. She never thought Fink would want to come to one of her brother's birthdays either.

"I thought it'd be best if she came since Venomous won't be making it," the orange robot simply replied after making sure Fink wasn't going to overhear their conversation.

"Oh he's not? That sucks… K.O. was hoping to have his first birthday with all of his family this year… No clue why he'd want that snake of a man anywhere near him, but I didn't complain," Enid was disappointed and annoyed. K.O. wasn't trying to repair his family or anything. He just wanted everybody he loved to remain in his life, like any normal child.

"Truth be told these last few days have been a complete disaster…" Shannon sighed, sharing similar feeling to Venomous vanishing as Enid did. "Sorry about us showing up unannounced. We were dropping off some presents we made for K.O. when Carol invited us."

"Nah don't be. It oughta be good for us to hang out instead of trying to maim each other," Enid laughed. Though they heard several small explosions with a small earthquake afterwards.

"_**What was that?!**_" Shannon asked unsure if she should be getting ready to run or fight, the teenage ninja made a dismissive hand gesture when the sounds of Rad groaning could be heard.

"It's fine, Rad just tripped on some blaster gauntlets… again," Enid groaned, irritated, going off to help her co-worker, leaving the Boxmore bot behind.

"This is going to be a long party," Shannon gulped, hoping she could at least mingle decently with all the heroes, though she doubted that would be an easy task.


	4. Wait With You

K.O.'s party was going well, and everybody was enjoying it for the last few hours. Enid had gotten her music going to let people dance. Radicles was taking it easy to the side, still recovering from being blown up twenty times over by an entire shelf of blasting gauntlets. It was not the first time that happened either.

Shannon had been able to talk with a lot of heroes pretty easily. Carol being so kind to her helped that a lot. It didn't change how naturally awkward it was for the Boxmore bot, yet that was fine to her. Awkward was starting to replace normal for her to say the least.

But Fink's mood gradually worsened with each passing hour that passed without Venomous showing up. That blind hope was starting to corrode her joy overtime.

"Alright, K.O., it's time for a couple more presents," Carol told her son. She had spaced out the openings of the gifts since K.O. was more focused on talking to others and trying to help them just enjoy the party.

"Oh, it's ours," Shannon hummed with Fink beside her. The young mouse was eating a slice of cake from her plate. The teenage robot was happy to just see her enjoying herself for the most part, though she understood when Fink became exhausted from all the other kids.

"He better like'em," the green haired girl said, feeling her caretaker rubbing her head reassuringly. She enjoyed that feeling a lot. Shannon knew she loved it when Professor Venomous did it after all.

"Don't worry. It should be better than punching Judy's gift," Shannon stated. They watched as K.O. began to open the present Shannon had made. He held no hesitation or fear at any possible traps from Boxman's daughter. Carol and a few other heroes did though, due to just how unpredictable the robot family could be.

"Huh?" K.O. blinked. There was a random assortment of wooden blocks inside the present. "What is it?"

"Try putting'em together," Shannon winked. K.O. nodded and did just that. When the parts were put together, it turned into a little wooden doll of the aspiring hero himself.

"_Wow…!_ That's amazing!" he exclaimed, astonished.

"I didn't know you could make stuff like that," Enid commented to their rival of many. The orange robot looked embarrassed at the attention and praises for her unknown skills.

"You don't go swinging sharp buzzsaws around without learning how to use them for more than just fighting," Shannon replied, guessing if the whole evil villain thing didn't work out, she had a promising career in woodworking.

K.O. began to open the present from Fink next. Inside was a framed photograph of all of Boxmore industries and Lakewood plaza turbo's many workers, all in one picture.

"I figured that picture was gone for good," Carol said, amazed. They had taken it a few days after the disaster a few months back, when both sides had agreed to help each other in repairing their respective facilities in a semi-peace treaty. Nobody knew where the photograph had gone due to a mess up at the printers that wound up losing it.

"Jethro made copies of the files before handing the camera over. Nobody asked him for them," Fink shrugged. The tiny blue robot had done it as a precaution since so many of Boxmore's family photos got ruined in chaos. It became a habit of Jethro's. The mouse only got the idea from noticing that one picture wasn't in the home of the Boxmore bots.

K.O. approached them and gave a tight hug to the two. "Thanks, Shannon. Thanks, Fink… I'm sorry the rest of your families couldn't come," K.O. said. He figured his mother only made an exception to the two of them, and not the rest of the villains' family members.

"You're welcome, K.O., and don't worry. They're all really busy right now," Shannon reassured, though Fink gave no response, simply breaking out from the embrace and beginning to walk out of the bodega.

"Did I do something wrong?" K.O. chirped, concerned that he hurt his technical sister somehow.

"No, no… she's just missing her boss… a lot," the orange robot stated before she left to go follow the mouse, leaving K.O. behind to let him continue enjoying his party.

* * *

Shannon found Fink out back of the bodega, seated on the curb. The afternoon was ending, and the sun was starting to set.

"Fink, what's wrong?" the teenage robot let her presence be known.

"_He didn't show up…_" Fink quietly said. Her hope had vanished. Boxman's daughter realized what she meant pretty quickly.

"You came to the party because you thought Venomous couldn't miss it…" Shannon sighed out. She had her suspicions for what was upsetting her during the party. She took a seat beside the young mouse. Now Shannon knew what Carol meant by inevitably hurting someone with the truth.

"Look, Fink, I'm sorry but… everyone that is available is looking for Venomous, and we even found his car this morning," Shannon tried to begin. The mention of the professor's car seemed to make Finks ears raise.

"You did?! Why didn't you tell me you found boss?!" Fink stood up, looking ready to pummel her babysitter for keeping that secret.

"_W-_we didn't find Venomous! Just his car," the teenage robot waved her hands defensively, getting the rat to calm down. "There was nothing in it, Fink. He spent a lot of time making sure he left no trace of himself behind in the car. Venomous is gone, Fink. I'm so sorry… it looks like he left to start a new life…"

"**That's not true!**" cried Fink. Her heart was crumbling as she refused to accept the truth. "I told Jethro last night already that boss would never leave me behind! He loved me way more than that stupid brat! He wouldn't even think about doing the same thing to me!" Fink's mouth quivered. "_I-I was the perfect minion…_"

"Professor Venomous is gone?" another voice sounded.

"_Crap…_" the orange bot groaned. She saw K.O. standing there. He came to see if he could help with whatever was bothering his technical sister, only to then hear the news in a second-hand fashion.

"I'm sorry, K.O. Your mom was going to tell you. She just didn't want to ruin your special day," Shannon apologized. She nodded at his query though, keeping her focus on him for the moment.

"Why would he do that?_ I mean…_ yeah, everybody was mad with him, but why would he go away?" K.O. queried further. Boxman's daughter could tell that he was more confused than upset. The sense of betrayal was far stronger for Fink. After all Venomous had put K.O. through a few months back, the ordeal had caused an immense strain on their relationship.

"_I…_ honestly don't know, K.O.," Shannon murmured. She didn't even want to imagine what would happen when they told Boxman the end results of their searches if Jethro hadn't already done it by now. "Fink, how about we go back to the party and-… Fink?" she tried to check on how Fink was doing on taking this news. The mouse had seemingly vanished herself now while her caretaker was busy talking with K.O.

"She left when you started talking to me," K.O. commented, disheartened by the realization. His biological father might be gone forever this time. The closest thing to a dad K.O. had left now was Mr. Gar.

"_H-_hey, there's no need to get upset," Shannon tried to think of something to say to cheer up the bodega cleaner, "Maybe he's going to try and become a hero again?" she suggested, as dumb as she thought it sounded.

"Really?" K.O. chirped, looking up to one of his many technical rivals, clutching the little wooden doll of himself close.

"Anything's possible. Come on, I need to take you back to your mom so I can go find Fink," Shannon took his hand into her own, glad she had been able to at least rekindle his spirits slightly.

"Thank you again Shannon, for everything," K.O. gave a big toothy smile, wanting to not worry everybody else on his birthday. As always, he'd try to stay optimistic. Shannon simply gave her own smile back at him, just hoping Carol wouldn't punch her for that suggestion later.

* * *

Hours passed, night had fallen a while ago. Fink had spent the entire time walking back to the lair she called home, not even caring for the now broken windows or that the interior looked ransacked. All that time the mouse spent cleaning gone to waste.

Fink did not know why she felt compelled to come back here. The home was all she could think of when Shannon repeated what Jethro had talked with her about the other night, that Professor Venomous had most likely gone off to start a new life, without her.

Fink wondered if she had been an awful minion to Venomous as she walked into the living room. Despite the messy state it was in, she still could see each memory she had with her boss in it. She saw an older sweater laying on the floor. Whatever chaos had hit their base before, it had been knocked down.

Fink picked up the Christmas sweater. It was over sized, almost reaching past her knees in its length. That didn't stop her from wearing it when she first got it._** '#1 minion'**_ was printed on the front.

"Isn't it a little big?" the young girl felt a hand on her head. She looked up to see that familiar black haired purple skinned man standing before her. She whimpered, hugging it tightly to her chest.

"_It's perfect…_" Fink sniffled, turning her gaze away as reality sank back in on her. She rested the sweater aside once she finished folding it, entering the kitchen. It looked relatively untouched aside from the open cabinets and refrigerator.

"Alright, Fink. My eyes are closed," Professor Venomous said, seated at the table, following his daughter's instructions.

"I made you something special, boss, since it's your birthday!" Fink chimed up eagerly, practically skipping from the microwave with a plate of spaghetti in her hands. "_W-_whoa!" the mouse wound up tripping accidentally, knocking her boss and the chair he was in over with a loud thud. Venomous groaned. Most of the food was on his head and hair more than the plate now.

"_B-_boss, I'm so sorry! Oh gosh!" Fink squeaked out, trying to desperately brush the noodles off of his head.

Fink ignored her memories once more as she tried to refocus on reality, closing everything in the kitchen back shut. She began to leave, though she swore she could hear Venomous's laughter from when he realized what had happened.

"_I have to clean up for… when he gets back…_" Fink mumbled to herself, slowly making her way back upstairs. It didn't take long to arrive to his work space. That familiar office that he handled everything from.

The office was probably the most damaged out of the whole lair. Papers were carelessly scattered everywhere when their lack of value became apparent. Half of the many pictures on the walls were crooked and the rest were on the floor.

"Boss's favorite picture is missing…" Fink said. It was practically glued to the desk by her boss, and now it was taken away. Her tail dragged on the floor as she began to fix the chairs back in their proper places around the desk before starting to recollect the paperwork. Once more, her mind began to drift away.

* * *

"I'm sorry it's just not enough of an offer for what you want," Professor Venomous was seated at his desk. A skinny wannabe goon was seated across from him.

"Really? How much would it take to get the amount of glorbs we want?" the light voiced man requested. Fink was nearby, simply cleaning the windows behind her boss's desk that he always spent each morning enjoying the view from with a cup of coffee.

"It'll take double the amount of technos than what you offered me here. You can go back and tell your employer that," the raven-haired villain explained. He was not one for cheap deals for the glorbs he sold.

"**What?!** If I go back and tell that to my boss, he'll can me for sure!" the young goon stood up in utter disbelief.

"Not my problem," Venomous shrugged, motioning his head to Fink. The man he was talking with reached over the desk, knocking over the photograph that rested nearby. He grabbed the professor by the collars of his lab coat.

"Please! I can't go back to being jobless! I—"

The man's face was lobbed with a large boxing glove that laid him out flat on his back, with a giant purple and black bruise on his eye.

"Don't touch boss!" Fink growled, holding a pistol that shot out a spring-loaded boxing glove. Professor Venomous chuckled, amused by the poor fool's attempt at a plight.

"Excellent work, Fink," her father smiled, rubbing her head. She gave a big grin of her own. Venomous reached over and fixed the picture back on his desk.

"I really should just glue this down with how often that happens," he commented. The picture was of him and a baby Fink in his arms, fast asleep with a pacifier in her mouth. With how comfortable she truly was, it was like she was sleeping on a heavenly cloud.

* * *

Fink ran her hand along the desk in the place where that framed photograph used to sit as her memories dulled, trying her best to suppress them. All they were doing at this point was increasing her emotional distress.

_"You knew I hated being alone more than anything. What'd I do wrong, Boss…?"_ Fink felt herself slump to the floor, bringing her knees to her chest, feeling the tears escaping her eyes.

_**"Not now, Fink! Just go play with one of your presents…"**_ that ghastly voice rang out in her head in that distance. He gradually kept putting more and more emotional distance between the two of them despite reversing it later on. After the incident months ago, Fink still had to wonder if it was all her own fault, or if she had lost her worthiness to him.

"You did nothing wrong, Fink…" a voice made the young mouse's ears twitch. Fink didn't want to look up, but she heard footsteps against the tiled floor as they approached.

Fink felt a hand on her head. The gentle soft touch caressing her hair reminded her so much of boss, yet the mouse refused to look up, keeping her face buried in her knees as she continued to weep.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Venomous earlier…" said Shannon, regretting that hesitation immensely. Fink slowly began to cast her gaze upwards to Shannon, whose hand kept petting her. The robot just knew Fink would run back into here, the mouse seeing that sympathetic expression on her caretakers face.

"Boss never loved me… _did he…?_" Fink questioned. Just those words made her want to cry harder. The robot crouching down to her height.

"He loved you more than anything in his life. We don't know what happened exactly or what was going on. We might find out one day, or we never will," Shannon confessed. She'd give it only a few more days before all searches for Professor Venomous degraded into being a secondary objective, since Boxmore Industries had to still operate. They couldn't keep all of their efforts devoted to finding the man that wanted to stay missing.

"He left me, just like that stinkin' hero… the only person he ever cared about was T.K.O.!" Fink cried, unsure if it was jealousy or anger. The orange robot knew those feelings all too well, and so did her brothers, whenever one of them outshined the others. It made them feel like Boxman didn't care, but it made them try harder.

"Fink, look at me," Shannon said in a stern tone, making her look up to her. "He's not the only one who loved you. Every one of us care about you a lot. You're more than just the daughter of a big investor to us... You're part of our family," she took Fink's hands into hers, squeezing them tight. "We love you as much as he did, you just have to give us a chance to show it."

Fink seemed to calm a little, which Shannon could see. The mouse was mixed with her instincts to deny it, or to accept it. Fink treated the Boxmore bots like trash for stealing Prof. Venomous's attention away from her for so long.

"I'll take care of you no matter what happens," Shannon picked the upset mouse up into her arms. The orange robot stood up, seeing that beautiful view of the night through the large window of the office.

"_Y…You want to be my new boss?_" Fink sniffled, crossing her arms and not wanting to look at her, as if the mere suggestion of that was insanity.

"I dunno if I can be a good boss. I'll leave that up to you, but… I can at least be your mom if you'd let me try," Shannon answered, feeling sheepish from recounting how the mouse had already called her boss once on accident. "You have to know that waiting for someone like this isn't healthy… so why don't we make a promise?"

"_Hm…?_" Fink kept looking to her as she began to calm.

"I want you to promise me to not keep doing this. Having hope and waiting is one thing, but you can't keep hurting yourself," Shannon knew she was requesting Fink to swear off the place she called home. Even if it was now a lifeless shell of its former self.

"_A-_and what're you gonna promise me?" Fink wondered aloud through her shaky voice, curious what she'd get in trade, though being in her caretaker's arms really made her feel a lot more at ease.

"I promise I'll wait with you anywhere, no matter what… as long as you wait with me," Shannon put it simply. She had been listening to her maternal instincts, like Carol insisted for her to do. It was odd, yet it seemed to be working. "What do you say?"

At first, Fink was silent. All of a sudden, she wrapped her arms around her neck in a tight embrace, still crying a little.

"_I-_if you try to leave me too, I'll turn you into a million pieces! Understand?!" Fink demanded. Boxman's daughter could only giggle at the threat as she began to make leave, carrying the mouse in her arms.

"I would never think of it. Come on, let's go home so we can get you dinner," Shannon said as she made her way downstairs, still carrying Venomous's daughter in her arms, rubbing a hand on her back to keep her comforted.

As they walked through the former lair of Fink and Venomous's, the young mouse swore all her memories felt like they were coming back at once. She shut her eyes tight, not wanting to feel as bad as she already did. She didn't want to relive them like this, seeing her boss in the memories like he was really there was what made it hurt the most.

"Remember. I'll be with you, no matter what," Shannon hummed, letting Fink know she was not alone. Though it would be a long walk back to Boxmore industries HQ, she looked forward to it.

"_Th-thank you…_ _for everything…_" Fink cooed, latched onto her caretaker and semi-consciously wrapping her tail around her robotic arm, her head rested on her shoulder.

"It's what moms are for, right?" the teenage robot giggled, simply staying focused as they continued along, letting Fink rest as long as she wanted to. Fink kept her head on Shannon's shoulder as she looked at the base that she used to call home, one last time, before she would be truly separated from it. Anything that was hers in there would be retrieved later, after they got the mouse settled in.

Shannon knew she was signing up for a challenge. But she wanted to do it. The young robot hoped the rest of her family would understand her decision, no matter how insane it sounded. Even if they might not ever find out what happened with Venomous, Shannon hoped that one day, she would be able to give Fink that closure.

The young rat closed her eyes, feeling tired. Her new mother relaxed when the mouse stopped quivering in her arms and began to quiet down. Shannon whispered into Fink's ear.

_ **"Don't worry… I'll wait with you."** _


End file.
